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Hearing on road closure delayed
Published 11/21/2009 in Local News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
A Holcomb convenience store owner's wish to vacate county road abutting his property has yet to be resolved.
A Finney County District Court hearing scheduled for Friday was continued in the case of Presta Oil Inc., the company that owns the Presto convenience store at 7935 W. U.S. Highway 50.
The company filed a petition with the county in early September to vacate a portion of frontage road south of the property and parallel to the east-west highway, but county officials have been unable to take action on the request following legal action from the Kansas Department of Transportation.
KDOT officials believe the closure will inhibit public access to frontage roads and convinced a district court judge, who ruled in mid-October that a temporary order inhibiting the Finney County Commission from taking action on the matter continue until the matter comes before the court.
Frontage road south of two other properties to the west of Presto — land belonging to George Rapp and Carson Hobbs — already was closed to public access following petitions filed with the County Commission that were unanimously approved earlier this year, on May 4 and July 20, respectively.
Larry Thompson, a southwest district engineer for KDOT, has said following the road closures, officials had to redesign a detour road in the ongoing U.S. 50 four-lane project that they initially envisioned as they began work on the North Big Lowe and U.S. 50 interchange: a detour road that would run east and west on the county road connecting North Big Lowe and IBP roads in Holcomb.
Now, due to the county road closures, traffic will have to enter and exit the frontage road on a yet-to-be designed detour interchange halfway between Big Lowe and IBP roads.
KDOT legal counsel argued in their injunction request to halt the County Commission from taking action that if the county were to hear and approve it, the transportation agency would not be able to "provide adequate detouring during construction and reasonable access to all abutting property owners after completion of the (U.S. Highway 50) project," according to district court documents.
Finney County commissioners have said they do not know Presto's motivations for wishing to vacate county road.
Phone messages to Topeka attorney Vernon L. Jarboe, legal counsel representing Presta Oil Inc., were not returned Friday.
A new hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Dec. 8 at the Finney County District Courthouse.
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